Dutro/Jnana
Pantaleimon : Cloudburst -mcd- (UK,rec.2006,pub.2007)***'
Pantaleimon is the moniker project from Andria Degens. Since her debut, 7 years ago, she has improved a lot in her expressions. While the almost plant-like loner conditions on this debut have let her spontaneously grow in consciousness, slowly adding more nutrition into her roots and feelings, this new release gave these roots more depth in feeling, sucking more life energy out of the water.
This is a more conscious, meditative and contemplative work, starting with a sad-and-beautiful, simple and clear melodic, fingerpicking guitar, instrumental, ending with this introduction into an echoing drone before the real, musical meditation begins in its full capacity. This will be carried by the silence, and sometimes with a few droning tones, while the melodic pickings rhythmically grow and develop itself, like grass blades that grow together in a family-like melodic series, while some of the picked out notes are echoing their rhythmic pulses into the silence, with their effect. The grass blades (as a collection of notes) could also be imagined like pitches, occurring like drops in flat water, that find their communications through the flat water, in a natural rhythm of appearances. The plants communicate through their common roots and with water, almost in silence, but with a content. This all thoroughly brings us to a more human condition of a mood, a bit more medieval in nature and more clearly melodic, and also more clearly with a few rhythmic droning strings. It is calmly spinning, enjoying the air, wind, and sun. On the last conclusive track the pickings change into the droning pulses of the Indian tampura, with a breathy vocal improvisation, ending in an OM meditation. (The last few seconds sadly have a few minor recording mistakes of distorted clicks, as if its inner nature of expression, and its peaks and vibrations could not be recorded fully, and goes beyond the reach of perception). Very nice...
Andria also made guest appearances on Dirty Three's 'Horse Stories', on Current 93's 'The stares are marching sadly home', and added music to Cam Archer's film 'Wild Tigers I have Known', and to Susan Stenger's 'soundtrack for an exhibition', besides she did contributions to projects by Irr.App. and Nurse With Wound.
Live she also appeared in collaboration with Wire, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Matt Sweeney, Antony & the Johnsons, Current 93, Ben Chasney, Sixteen Horsepower, Baby Dee, John Contreras and James William Hindle.
